ANGER- HAVEN GARDENS

ANGER- Haven Gardens

Eventually the stress of the maze was too much. He called out desperately, hoping for respite…

The changing environment begins to grate on him. Frustrated, and without any clue as to why he is in this mess he calls out. This is what he finds- Respite- Haven Gardens. As a child he and his companions spent many a summers eve playing soldier in the tangled bushes of the forgotten estate. Eventually it was un-forgotten. Men in yellow vests proclaimed the boys beloved fortress to be unsafe, and ugly metal bars were erected.

Almost magnetic, the bars and their attached prospect of denial drew the bad sort to Haven Gardens, and what was once a paradise for young boys turned into a dumping ground, a temple of drunken fumblings, a house weeping with the stench of drugs and debauchery.

What could they do? They were mere boys. Their protests were pointless, they had no voice for they were only children- and who the hell listens to a child?

–

Haven gardens is an example of a stressful, angry memory in the maze of the protagonists mind. Flooded with nostalgia at its reappearance, and exhausted- desperate for a rest-the protagonist is drawn towards it. Simultaneously, curious, frustrated from hours of navigating a featureless maze, the player is excited, drawn towards this newness in the sea of the mundane. The terrible twist in the tale is that both the players and the protagonist will be completely unable to enter the area of respite, despite hints otherwise. The house is open for exploration- however inside it is not the house the protagonist remembers from his days playing soldiers- it is dark,strewn with litter, the atmosphere is heavy, noises come from dark corners and a sinister voice taunts, urges the player to come further in- but to what end?

A battle? A trap? instant death?

Technical

This took a week, which boiled down is 3-4 days at the most since i’ve had to do other bits of coursework too. To save time, textures were used for the brickwork, railings etc ( though most of the bricks on the main building are hand painted).

The general effect is meant to be that the closer one gets to the memory, the more vivid it is. So around the house and garden are clear, but across the ditch the memory fades gradually and the bricks merge back with the featureless maze. An overlay of the abstract ANGER was used as a texture for the maze to add a bit more emotion/atmosphere in there.

Overall my opinion of this? its kinda inbetween. Its sometimes hard to know when to stop on this kind of thing and its tempting to go back in and add more detail to sell the story more. There are a few other things i’d change, but i dont want to spend forever tweaking it. That can get addictive pretty quick.